


Driven To Distraction

by Matriaya



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: And he's not happy about it, M/M, Pining, TK is a Dumbass, TK makes out with a random chick, in Patty's backseat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:39:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27621485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matriaya/pseuds/Matriaya
Summary: Most nights, Patty’s okay with being the designated driver.
Relationships: Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick
Comments: 28
Kudos: 237





	Driven To Distraction

**Author's Note:**

> Pulled this nugget out of my brain on my commute home on night. May it bring you as much joy as it brought me.

Most nights, Patty’s okay with being the designated driver. He can’t really drink anyway, more than like one beer, and it saves him, Kevin, and TK from needing to pay for an Uber to shuttle their asses around. Plus, if he’s honest, he really likes driving. Or at least he really likes cranking up his favorite playlist and heading out onto the dark, mostly empty Philly streets. 

There’s a kind of magic at night that he is usually used to finding only in the quiet of the woods, up in a deer stand, or out on a lake. But it’s only at night. Philly during the day is garbage. It’s the solitude, probably. A time when he can be alone with his thoughts.

Alone is stretching it, some days, being DD. A lot of the time, the guys he’s shuttling around are too drunk and tired from a night of partying to converse much, they just sort of pass out against the window. Kevin does, for sure, about 90% of the time, and then Patty has to lug his ass into the house, help him to the couch because fuck trying to get him all the way upstairs, find him a blanket like a good roommate. 

When Nolan drives TK, it’s the opposite. He’s definitely a woo girl drunk, always insisting on sitting in the front seat, and running his mouth the whole time about everything that happened that night, or something he watched on tv, or fucking hockey, and none of it is ever important but Patty fucking loves it anyway. Nolan loves his quiet, his solitude, but most of the time Teeks just fits, even if he can’t stop talking to save his life. 

For a while, Patty tried really hard not to look into why that was. It was a spectacular failure, not looking. Now, he practices mindfulness. Acknowledges that the feelings are there, tries to let them go, pictures all of them sliding out of his brain, out of his chest like water. It works better some days than others. 

Some days, Patty fucking hates being the designated driver. It’s nights like tonight when he wishes from the beginning he’d told everyone on the team to go fuck themselves, stayed home, locked himself in his bedroom, and listened to episodes of My Favorite Murder until he fell asleep. 

Tonight, he has to drive a drunk TK home, but they aren’t alone. 

Travis found a girl to bring with them.

Kevin had given Nolan sympathetic eyes as soon as Travis got drunk enough to think practically dry humping the blond bombshell in the bar was the best idea he’d ever had. Objectively, it is a great idea. She’s hot, she’s into hockey players, she wants to hook up. The perfect recipe. For Travis. 

Drunk Travis has even less of a filter or self control than Sober Travis, who has very little to begin with, so when the three of them walk out to where Patty parked his car, Travis already has his hand tucked into his girl’s back pocket, and can’t stop leaning over to kiss her neck. 

“You smell so fucking good,” he moans, way louder than he has to into the chilly autumn air. Her responding giggle stabs into Nolan’s brain and swizzles it around like a martini. He’s walking ahead of them, hands in his pockets, shoulders up to his ears, wishing like fuck he had the guts to tell Travis to go fuck himself and make him get an Uber instead. Nolan has to be so fucking soft about Travis though, all the god damn time.Travis, upon realizing he wanted to go home, abandoned his girl for a second to push up next to Patty’s space, and then kneel down on the fucking floor beside the booth. Grabbed Nolan’s hand in both of his, and smiled up at Patty like he hung the moon in the sky. And then asked “bud, will you drive me home?” 

What the fuck else was he supposed to do but say yes?

And yeah, maybe the over the top proposal-style ask gave Patty ideas. Not marriage ideas, obviously, but like. He’d drive Travis home, Travis would invite him up for some COD, or to watch a movie, or some shit, and maybe they’d fall asleep cuddling on the couch like happened sometimes. Maybe it would be the night that Nolan finally got up the courage to just  _ kiss him _ like he should have done from moment one.

But then after Travis pumped his fist in victory, he’d shot up and over to the girl and said “babe! My buddy said he’d drive us!” and honestly, Patty should have seen it coming. Got the biggest ever “sorry bro” look from Kev, who was going to stay on and hang with the guys a little longer. 

Nolan didn’t know what punched more; the fact that Travis was thoughtlessly using Patty as a taxi service so he could go home and fuck this chick, or the fact that he just called Patty “my buddy” like he was just another one of the guys

.

But maybe he is. Nolan had always seen them as more than just “buddies.” Just friends, of course, he would never assume TK shared his deeply embarrassing and ridiculous romantic inclinations, but TK was his  _ best friend _ not just his buddy. 

  
  


They make it to the car, and he hopes Travis will sit in the front him because at least it will feel a little bit like usual, with Travis running his mouth or singing too loudly, and maybe Nolan can just ignore the girl Travis is taking home to fuck. Travis climbs into the back seat though, and tugs the girl in after him, and immediately fastens his mouth to hers. So great. That’s how this car ride is going to go. 

He does  _ not _ offer to let the girl (what the fuck is her name anyway? Nolan should probably know to, ya know, be polite, but he also can’t really find it in himself to care so whatever) pick the music, but instead he pulls up the spotify playlist he named “Go Fuck Yourself” and turns the volume way up. 

Patty can still  _ see _ them, though. His masochist brain can’t stop him from stealing glances in the rearview mirror. Travis has his hand fisted in her hair, kissing her, breaks off in a gasp and looks down to where presumably she’s rubbing him over his jeans. 

Nolan jerks his gaze back to the road, and kicks the volume up another notch. Navigates to TK’s place on autopilot. Travis is a dumbass, and has about the same emotional awareness as a goldfish, but he’s never been quite this blatant about his hookups in front of Nolan before. 

It takes Nolan another five blocks to realize they are no longer visible in his rearview mirror, which means they’re now laying down on the back seat, and possibly  _ actually _ fucking. In the back seat of his car. And  _ hell no _ is anyone having sex in the back seat of his car without him being explicitly involved. 

“Knock in the fuck off!” He yells, breaks unexpectedly, just for a moment, enough for the girl to shriek, and Travis to give a yelp as he half topples off the seat and onto the floor. 

Travis has the good grace to look a little sheepish as he rights himself, putting a bit of space between him and the girl. 

The space disappears by the time they finally pull onto Travis’s block. He isn’t full on making out with her, but he’s got his face tucked against her neck, and whispers something that makes her giggle again. 

Patty knows -  _ knows -  _ that he’s being pathetic and grumpy because he’s remembering all the times it was him drunk in the back seat, with TK whispering something stupid/hilarious into his ear, a private joke for just the two of them. He doesn’t actually care. As he pulls to a stop in front of Travis’s building, he puts the car in park, but says nothing. Doesn’t look back, just stares into the corridor of receding street lights ahead of him. 

“Meet you at the door, babe.” Travis says as he waves the girl out the door, then pokes his head into the front seat with a sloppy grin all over his face.

“Thanks bud,” he says. “You’re the best.”

Nolan says nothing, doesn’t look at him, doesn’t even acknowledge his presence. 

A few seconds creak by, and out of his periphery, he can see the smile on Travis’s face begin to slide off.

Good. 

“Patso?” Travis sounds genuinely confused, and a little worried, like he can’t figure out why Patty might be pissed.

Why the fuck is Nolan in love with him? It’s monumentally unfair. 

“Get out, Teeks, I have to go home.” 

His voice comes out as flat and emotionless as he can make it.

“Patty.” Travis’s voice switches immediately to the small soft hurt that he only uses when he’s genuinely upset, or realizes he fucked up. He seems neither of those things, though, which just pisses Patty off even more. “What’s wrong bud?”   
  


Nolan can’t stand to be in the car with him for another goddamn second. He hits his seatbelt, and pushes himself out into the cool night air, ignoring the friendly beeping reminder that he just exited his vehicle without turning it off. 

Travis scrambles across the seat and out the door to follow him. Nolan really should take this opportunity to get back into his car really quick and gun it, but that would mean turning around to look at Travis, and he’s already launched himself halfway across the street by now. Fuck Travis and his ignorance, and his stupid face, and the way Nolan’s name leave’s his mouth all soft. 

“Dude!” Travis calls out. 

Nolan continues to stomp down the street, head down like he’s ready to bolt. He still might.

“Go home!” Patty calls back, not turning around. He makes it three more steps, swallowed up by the darkness between street lights when Travis catches up to him, yanks hard on his arm to make him stop.

“What the fuck, Patty!” Travis shouts. “What the hell is wrong with you!” 

“You are!” Nolan whirls around. The words rip from his throat, harsh, and a little bit shattered. “Fucking… you are, Teeks!” 

Travis recoils like Patty slapped him.

“Wha-” Travis starts, but Nolan doesn’t care anymore. He shoves Travis; not hard enough to make him fall, but enough to have him stumbling backwards. 

“Using me like some kind of fucking taxi service?” 

Travis blinks up at him, confused, and the hurt is bleeding into it now.

“I thought…” he starts, but Nolan cuts him off again.

“Yeah, you  _ thought. _ That’d I’d, what, happily chauffeur you and your new girlfriend around while you fuck in my back seat?” 

Travis looks like maybe he wants to hold ground here, but Patty’s just bigger than him, and bubbling over with rage, and so he retreats. 

“She’s not my…” Travis starts to mumble.

“Shut the fuck up.” 

Patty is vibrating with anger, can feel it crawling beneath his skin, and there’s a hot line of fire from his temple snaking all the way down behind his ear. 

Travis opens his mouth. Closes it again. He’s always been embarrassingly easy to read, and Nolan watches the hurt and confusion perform a goddamn Swan Lake across his face until he finally speaks again.

“Patty, I don’t understand why you’re so upset.” He’s really quiet now, the type of quiet that makes him seem like some strange, alternate reality version of himself. “I’m sorry if we got a little carried away, but you said you were fine driving me and…”

This time, Patty doesn’t interrupt, but Travis trails off anyway, searching for words that seem to get lost inside his brain. 

Finally, after a pause that seems to take actual eons, he asks, “Why are you mad at me?” 

And you know what? Fuck it. Fuck literally everything. Nolan passed that barren fuck field about three hours ago, and he doesn’t  _ care. _ Can’t find the energy to pretend anymore, or come up with excuses, or try to protect Travis’s feelings from the truth because he’s  _ tired. _ He just wants to get drunk, and he fucking  _ can’t  _ without risking a migraine and it makes him want to scream.

Patty fists his hands in his own hair, pulls hard, harder, to the point that it nearly brings tears to his eyes, but he can’t shake the notion that he’s about to fall off a cliff now, and he’s craving the giant splat at the end. 

Travis is still wobbly, and looking like maybe he’s going to cry, and Patty both hates and loves him in this moment. Hates the way a single look from TK carves right into the meat of Patty’s heart, sinks talons in he can never quite dislodge. Fucking loves, even now, that Travis can’t hide his emotions, ever, that he’s staring at Patty and Patty can watch them loop over and over, knows what every wrinkle, every line means. 

It’s very possible he’s going to take the single most important thing in his life and torch it to the ground, but he’s so keyed up he doesn’t care.

Light the fuses, bitches.

He takes two jerky steps forward, so fast Travis doesn’t have time to react. He throws everything he’s got into kissing Travis, hands cupping his face, fingertips skimming along the greasy strands of Travis’s hair as Nolan presses their mouths together. He’s cold, and shaking, and Travis’s mouth is so, so fucking warm as he sinks in, pulling Travis’s bottom lip gently between his teeth. Thinks he feels Travis shiver. Nolan’s brain never completely goes offline, though it definitely goes fuzzy for a few seconds. One more drag on TK’s mouth, that last addictive hit, and he pulls away and immediately makes a beeline for the car.

He’s in the seat, and shifting into drive before Travis even turns to look at him. Trav just stands there like a shadow, unmoving, and Patty has to swerve around him, but forces himself to stare straight ahead. He thinks maybe he hears shouts of “Patty, wait!” but doesn’t stop to find out, just barrels into the darkness, going way too fucking fast. 

Shit.

Shit shit  _ fucking shit. _

He’s so fucking screwed. 

**

Nolan blinks awake to the sound of pounding on his bedroom door. He doesn’t usually lock it, but when he came home last night, still shaking from the adrenaline, he was hit with an overwhelming intense need to hide, so he’d locked his door, pulled his covers up over his head, and stared into the darkness of his blanket cave for the better part of two hours, mind fucking  _ screaming _ , until sleep finally came.

“Patty, wake the fuck up!”

It’s Travis.

Great. 

Nolan should be panicking right now, but he’s also not the least bit surprised. He fucking kissed Teeks last night. On the mouth. He took just buddies and crushed it into the asphalt. He was hoping maybe he’d have more time than this though, or maybe Travis would be too drunk to remember.

“Teeks, are you sure that…” Kevin is there too, and there’s a little comfort in that. Kevin can hold Travis back from fully beating Nolan into the ground. 

“Patty!” Travis is louder this time, and his pounding shakes the door on its hinges. 

“Go away!” Patty calls back, then tugs the covers back up over his head. He gets that slightly claustrophobic feeling of breathing recycled air, but it’s comforting too. 

“Don’t think I won’t break your fucking door, dude!” Travis yells.

Fuck.

Fine.

He dug this grave, he should probably go flop in it.

Nolan pulls open the door just as Travis is getting ready to knock again, and both Travis and Kevin take a surprised step back. 

“It’s too fucking early, Teeks,” Patty says, blearily, and pushes past them. 

“Dude, is everything ok?” Kevin asks. He’s not stupid. He can see the rage on Travis’s face, the stony silence on Nolan’s.

“It was until this asshole decided to wake me up,” Nolan quips. He is one hundred percent certain that if he can just make it to the kitchen and pour himself a cup of coffee, everything will be better.

“You  _ kissed me _ , Pat.” 

Welp, Travis just dropped that right in the middle of the fucking room. Okay. That’s how it’s going to be. Nolan doesn’t look at him, focuses on pouring his cup of coffee, and is really proud when his hands don’t shake. 

Kevin’s eyes widen in shock, and then he puts up a hand to ward off the both of them.

“I’m gonna be in my room,” he says. “Don’t kill each other.” 

Then they’re alone.

Patty knew this was coming but still he’s not remotely ready. He’d replayed that damn kiss in his mind so many times last night, wondering why he’d done it, why that moment was the moment he decided to lay everything out. He still doesn’t have the answer.

He takes one long slurp of his coffee, closes his eyes as he feels the caffeine jolt his brain into wakefulness, and then turns to face Travis, leaning on the island counter. 

Fuck, even with Travis standing there glaring daggers at him, Patty still wants to kiss him. It’s gross. 

Patty has perfected his wait-and-glare game over the course of his 22 years, though. He has no doubt Travis will crack before him. It takes a few more sips. Travis holds out longer than he expected, and then sort of flails his arms up in the air. 

“Dude!” 

Sluuuurp. 

“That’s it? Nothing? You got nothing for me?” Travis keeps shouting. Patty shrugs. It is too early for his “ _ my heart is yours and always will be _ ” speech. He needs at least one more cup of coffee for that.

Travis shoves a hand through his hair, glares angrily at the floor as he composes his thoughts.

“You kissed me.” he says finally, more quietly than before.

“Yup.” 

Nolan won’t let his features betray that he’s scared, that he’s fucking  _ terrified _ that Travis will end their friendship right here.

“And you’ve got…  _ nothing _ to say about it?” 

Patty wishes now that he wasn’t so good at reading Travis, because watching the uncertainty is so much harder than just anger. He sighs down into his cup, finally breaking eye contact.

“I don’t know what there is left to say, bud.” 

Travis lets out a frustrated, strangled noise.

“How about  _ why?” _

Patty snaps his gaze back up, sets his mouth in a flat line.

“Why do you think, Travis?” 

There’s that flicker of uncertainty again. 

“Are you in love with me?” Travis asks, so fucking soft now. Patty sets down his coffee cup. It’s that same feeling of helplessness he got yesterday, of seeing the truck coming, and being unable to step out of the way. That tenacious, angry part of him that can never pass up a fight flicks on as he crosses the kitchen slowly until he’s got Travis pressed up against the opposite counter, boxes him in with his arms. 

Nolan’s always been a little bit horny about their height difference. Loves that TK is so much shorter than him, that he has to crane his way all the way up to look at Patty, especially when they’re close like this. 

“And what if I am?” Nolan asks. Travis’s breath is warm against his face, and Nolan watches his pupils grow wider. He looks scared, like he’s just found this cliff Patty’s on too and noticed the drop. 

Nolan waits. 

So fucking slowly, Travis leans up and presses his lips against Nolan’s. He’s not at all confident, or steady, but the kiss zings through Nolan anyway and his fingers grip into the countertop. Everything in him wants to reach for Travis, but Travis needs to be the one to fully cross this bridge. It’s no more than two seconds, and then Travis drops down again, and Nolan forces his eyes open to look at him. The air between them is electric. Nolan can’t get enough oxygen into his lungs, but doesn’t dare pull away. 

Travis blinks those big doe eyes for a moment, and then the smallest grin turns up the corners of his mouth as he goes up to kiss Nolan again.

Kevin finds them seven minutes later, with Travis sitting up on the counter, legs wrapped loosely around Patty’s waist, kissing him like it’s a competitive sport. Patty’s shirt is off, and his fingers are buried in the mess of Travis’s hair. Neither of them hear Kevin until he speaks.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Kevin rumbles as he half turns around. “You’ve got a bedroom, dude.” 

Patty has the good grace to look embarrassed, but Travis just grins as he hops down from the counter, pulling Nolan’s discarded shirt with him as he goes. 

“Don’t want to stay for the show, bud?” he asks. Patty whacks him upside the head, but then laces their fingers together, tugging him towards the stairs with a mumbled, “sorry” in Kevin’s direction. 

Kevin holds in his grin until they are safely up the stairs and out of sight. 

  
  
  
  



End file.
